Bob Hanna — Inside Boxing: Golovkin tearing up middleweight division

Next time you make out a top 10 pound-for-pound list, make room for Gennady Golovkin.

BOB HANNA

Next time you make out a top 10 pound-for-pound list, make room for Gennady Golovkin.

If you didn't see him Saturday night on HBO, you're probably asking, "Who?"

That's what I said when I discovered he was the WBA "regular" middleweight champion. Well I've been hearing good things about him in recent weeks, which is why I decided to stay up Saturday night — no easy task these days — to see his United States debut.

Actually, I wasn't expecting much, but boy, was I surprised. This guy — he's from Kazakhstan — is good. I mean really, really good. If you didn't see him Saturday, you will before too long. He's going to be in some big fights with big name opponents in the not too distant future.

Did I say he was a puncher, a big puncher? Well he is, which will make him an instant gate attraction here in the U.S. He doesn't just take knockouts when the opportunity arises, he's the kind of heavy-handed hitter who's looking to knock you out from the opening bell.

But he's not a wild man in the ring. In fact, he looks more like a choirboy than a killer puncher — until the bell rings. His business is knocking people out and he goes about it with the calm precision of a professional hitman.

He's 24-0, with 21 knockouts. And it's legit. This is not a guy who has built an impressive record on the backs of a bunch of tomato cans.

The guy he fought Saturday night was Grzegorz Proksa (28-2, 21 KOs), who was the No. 4 middleweight in the Ring magazine rankings prior to a decision loss to Englishman Kerry Hope in Yorkshire last March.

"I've seen (Proksa) beat up on some good fighters," noted HBO commentator Max Kellerman. "This guy can fight. And he just got destroyed by Golovkin."

One other thing about Proksa, a southpaw with an awkwardly effective style, he had never been down before Saturday night. He lost that distinction in a hurry. He went down in the first, fourth and fifth rounds before referee Charlie Fitch mercifully ended the one-sided battering. Golovkin, meanwhile, hardly worked up a sweat.

After the fight, Golovkin told Kellerman, without it sounding like bragging, that he was "ready" to fight anyone, from junior middleweight Miguel Cotto to super middleweight Andre Ward and everybody in between, including Floyd Mayweather. Hey don't laugh, this guy is for real.

Golovkin will have to wait on Manny Pacquiao because it looks like the Pacman will take on Juan Manuel Marquez a fourth time Nov. 10 in Las Vegas, though that hasn't been confirmed.

Pacquiao's plans, according to a FightNews source, do not include a rematch with Timothy Bradley, but do include Mayweather in 2013.

Oh yes, there's some big fights coming up in 2013. And the hitman from Kazakhstan is right in the mix.

There's also a couple of good fights Saturday night on HBO from the Oracle Arena in Oakland, where Ward defends his WBC and WBA super middleweight belts against former two-time light heavyweight champion "Bad" Chad Dawson.

I initially liked Dawson to win this interesting matchup between two top-10 pound-for-pound fighters on the tried-and-true axiom that good big men beat good little men. But the more I think about it, the more I lean to Ward, who may be the most underrated fighter out there. I was aware that Ward outboxed the tough Carl Froch in his last fight, but wasn't aware that he did so with a damaged left hand, which he broke a few days before the Froch bout. That Ward still won easily is very impressive.

The co-featured bout between KO artists Antonio DeMarco (27-2-1, 20 KOs), the WBC lightweight champion, and John Molina (24-1, 19 KOs) could be the best fight of the night in terms of two-way action.

Prior to those two live fights, HBO will show a tape delay of Vitali Klitschko defending his WBC belt against unbeaten Manuel Charr (21-0, 11 KOs) in Moscow.

Vitali's brother Wladimir, meanwhile, will put his three belts on the line against Mariusz Wach (27-0, 15 KOs) Nov. 10 in Hamburg, Germany.

Wach may be the first fighter Wladimir has faced who is bigger than him, but the 6-foo-7 Polish giant may also be the slowest. This one will not last long.

Following the reinstatement of Lamont Peterson as IBF junior welterweight champion, former welterweight champ Andre Berto has also been cleared of drug charges by the California State Athletic Commission.

The commission supported Berto's claim that the positive drug finding was due to "contaminated nutritional substances." I don't know if this is an indictment against the commission or against the testing process.

The Randall Bailey-Devon Alexander IBF welterweight title fight scheduled for Saturday has been postponed due to a back injury to Bailey and will be rescheduled in late October. ... The postponed Adonis Stevenson-Donovan George IBF super middleweight eliminator has been rescheduled for Oct. 12 at the Bell Centre in Montreal. ... Cotto, a three-division champion, will bid for another title Dec. 1 against WBA welterweight champion Austin Trout at Madison Square Garden.

For the third straight year undefeated junior middleweight contender Demetrius "Boo Boo" Andrade of Providence will headline the 11th annual Fight to Educate show Sept. 20 at the Verizon Wireless Arena in Manchester, N.H. against an opponent yet to be announced. ... Former IBF middleweight champion Arthur Abraham won the WBO super middleweight title via a unanimous decision over Robert Stieglitz in a close fight in Berlin. . . Boxing returns to Brooklyn Oct. 20 when Eric Morales tries to regain the WBA and WBC titles against the man to whom he lost them, Danny Garcia. The last boxing card in Brooklyn was in 1931.

Bob Hanna covers boxing for The Standard-Times. Contact him at sports@s-t.com

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